Thursday 12 May 2016

Government refuses to accept blame for shortage of paramedics in Northamptonshire

Government refuses to accept blame for shortage of paramedics in Northamptonshire The Department of Health has refused to accept it is to blame for a shortage of paramedics and ambulances at Northamptonshire’s ambulance service. Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Guidance: Health matters: giving every child the best start in life

Guidance: Health matters: giving every child the best start in life This resource for health professionals and local authorities focuses on investing in early years services from pregnancy through to 2 years old. Public Health England

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NHS pushes forward with ambition to create world class cancer services

NHS pushes forward with ambition to create world class cancer services The NHS in England will today (Thursday) set out its plans to deliver world class cancer services, which includes a fund to find new ways of speeding up diagnosis with the potential to save thousands more lives every year.

The National Cancer Transformation Board, led by Cally Palmer, National Cancer Director for England, will today publish a wide ranging plan designed to increase prevention, speed up diagnosis, improve the experience of patients and help people living with and beyond cancer. NHS England

People with a learning disability to design ‘quality checks’ for NHS services

People with a learning disability to design ‘quality checks’ for NHS services People with a learning disability are being asked to contribute to new tests which will help improve NHS services ranging from dentistry to acute care, NHS England has announced today.

The NHS Quality Checkers programme sees people with a learning disability employed to inspect local NHS services critically, to provide advice on how they can better meet their needs and those of other patients. NHS England

Record amount of fake Viagra seized

Record amount of fake Viagra seized More unlicensed erectile dysfunction drugs were seized in the UK by the authorities last year than ever before - worth more than £11m. The Victoria Derbyshire programme joined a raid to find out why they are a problem. BBC News

Rio Olympics could spark 'full blown global health disaster' say Harvard scientists

Rio Olympics could spark 'full blown global health disaster' say Harvard scientists The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro could spark a “full-blown public health disaster”, doctors have warned.

Since the Zika virus was first identified in Brazil in May 2015, the disease's spread through Latin America has been declared a health emergency by the World Health Organisation and the number of suspected cases in Rio is the highest of any state in the country.

The continued presence of the virus ahead of the summer Olympics has caused athletes and health specialists to question the risks involved in allowing the Games to go ahead with hundreds of thousands of spectators travelling to the city. The Independent

American Chemical Society says homeopathy is 'bunk' - here's why

American Chemical Society says homeopathy is 'bunk' - here's why Homeopathy is “bunk” and it could be putting people’s lives at risk, the American Chemical Society (ACS) has claimed.

In a YouTube video posted on its Reactions blog, the ACS said the complementary medicine was based on outdated ideas developed by its founder Dr Samuel Hahnemann, who was born in 1755.

The ideas that ‘like cures like’ and that water can ‘remember’ an active ingredient even though it has been diluted past the point at which there would be any left were wrong, the ACS said. The Independent

More obese patients in the UK should be offered weight loss operations, say surgeons

More obese patients in the UK should be offered weight loss operations, say surgeons Surgeons say more operations would save the NHS money in the long term.

The UK should dramatically increase the number of weight loss operations it offers to obese patients on the NHS, up from 6,000 up to 50,000 a year, according to surgeons who say it would make people healthier and save the NHS money.

Less than 1% of people who could benefit are getting surgery and the numbers are dropping not rising, according to bariatric surgeons writing in the British Medical Journal, who say that the UK is lagging behind other countries in Europe. Continue reading... The Guardian

Jeremy Hunt misleading voters over NHS budget increase, says thinktank

Jeremy Hunt misleading voters over NHS budget increase, says thinktank King’s Fund accuses health secretary of inaccurately claiming health service is getting sixth-biggest increase in history

Britain’s leading health thinktank has accused Jeremy Hunt of misleading voters by wrongly claiming that the budget increase ministers have given the NHS this year is one of the most generous ever.

The King’s Fund has rejected the health secretary’s claim that the NHS is receiving “the sixth-biggest increase in its history” as inaccurate and a misrepresentation of the service’s perilous financial position. Continue reading... The Guardian

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IT system blunder led to patients incorrectly prescribed statins

IT system blunder led to patients incorrectly prescribed statins Health regulators have launched an investigation after it emerged that patients may have had their risk of cardiovascular disease miscalculated following an IT blunder.

Pulse magazine revealed there has been a bug in a system used by some GPs to determine a patient's risk.

This means that patients could have been affected by being inappropriately put on statins or taken off them as a result of a miscalculation. The Daily Telegraph

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